A new subtype of diabetes was found and it may require different treatment

There have long been two commonly recognized types of diabetes, but a third form may have been discovered, according to a study published in the journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. And patients with this potential third type of diabetes may not be receiving the most effective treatment for their condition.

Type 3?

With Type 1 diabetes, your body's immune system "attacks the islet cells in the pancreas that make insulin," said UVA Health. This form is an autoimmune condition that tends to be hereditary. But when researchers looked at close to 900 people across Cameroon, Uganda and South Africa who had been diagnosed with Type 1 before the age of 30, they found that 65% of the people "did not have antibodies typically present in autoimmune diabetes nor did they have evidence of genetic predisposition to Type 1 diabetes," Britain's University of Exeter said in a press release. "We have always wondered why many young people diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes manage to survive without insulin, at least for some time, which would be unusual in typical Type 1 diabetes," said Jean Claude Katte, the lead author of the study, in the release.

Those participants also "did not have features consistent with other known types of diabetes" like Type 2, the university said. With Type 2, the "pancreas makes less insulin than it used to, and your body becomes resistant to insulin," meaning "your body has insulin but stops being able to use it," said UVA Health. This form can develop because of risk factors like obesity, diet, age or genetic predisposition.

Along with the many cases of the new subtype found in sub-Saharan Africa, researchers also uncovered a prevalence in Black Americans but not white Americans. "The fact that Black Africans and Black Americans had this novel non-autoimmune subtype of diabetes suggests both genetic and environmental factors may contribute to it," said New Scientist.

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Deficient data

"If two out of every three young patients in parts of Africa actually have a different disease, the global numbers — and the research priorities that follow — need a hard look," said Earth.com. Health care and medical research have largely neglected marginalized communities, leading to gaps in knowledge about how disease affects different groups.

"At the moment, insulin remains the mainstay of treatment for this new diabetes subtype because they are also insulin-deficient," said Katte to New Scientist. But a different type of diabetes might mean that people with this third kind are not receiving the most effective treatment they could be. Additional research is still needed to determine what causes this particular type before better treatment can be administered.